CIAC does away with football’s 50-point rule

New policy will include running clock

By Sean Patrick Bowley sbowley@nhregister.com @SPBowley on Twitter

Published
6:59 pm EDT, Monday, June 27, 2016

(Catherine Avalone/New Haven Register) A Constitution defenseman breaks up a pass intended for Nutmeg's Anthony Caramanica - Xavier, Saturday, June 25, 2016, in the Super 100 Classic 2016 High School Senior All-Star Football game sponsored by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. Team Constitution defeated Team Nutmeg, 33-9. less

(Catherine Avalone/New Haven Register) A Constitution defenseman breaks up a pass intended for Nutmeg's Anthony Caramanica - Xavier, Saturday, June 25, 2016, in the Super 100 Classic 2016 High School Senior ... more

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(Catherine Avalone/New Haven Register) A Constitution defenseman breaks up a pass intended for Nutmeg's Anthony Caramanica - Xavier, Saturday, June 25, 2016, in the Super 100 Classic 2016 High School Senior All-Star Football game sponsored by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. Team Constitution defeated Team Nutmeg, 33-9. less

(Catherine Avalone/New Haven Register) A Constitution defenseman breaks up a pass intended for Nutmeg's Anthony Caramanica - Xavier, Saturday, June 25, 2016, in the Super 100 Classic 2016 High School Senior ... more

Photo: Journal Register Co.

CIAC does away with football’s 50-point rule

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The CIAC’s “50-point” score management policy which, for the last 10 seasons, hung the threat of suspension over football coaches whose teams won by 51 or more points, is no more.

In its place is a new “score management” policy which will make use of a mandatory running clock when a team leads by 42 or more points in the third quarter, or leads by 35 or more points in the fourth quarter.

If the score differential is reduced in either of those cases, the officials will revert to regular timing until they are breached again or the game ends.

While running clocks have been allowed under CIAC rules, this change marks the first time they will be mandatory. Previously, officials needed consent from both coaches to employ a running clock.

The new score management policy is a one-year trial. The CIAC announced the changes in its annual preseason football rules packet on Monday.

What ultimately forced the CIAC to revise the policy — which was nationally derided upon its inception in 2006 — was its relatively new six-quarter rule, which prevents sub-varsity players from participating in more than six quarters of game action during a week.

The CIAC found coaches had difficulty playing their reserves in blowouts while also keeping them eligible to play in junior varsity or freshman contests during the week. Some programs were forced to drop or combine some sub-varsity teams due to the lack of eligible players.

“A mandatory running clock will make everyone’s (coaches, players and officials) jobs easier in managing games with high score differentials and might reduce the risk of injuries by reducing the number of exposures in a “lopsided” game,” the CIAC wrote. “A mandatory running clock will also help coaches and programs to adhere to the “levels” and “quarters” limitation rules.”

Making the running clock mandatory also “eliminates potential conflicts that can arise when a game is out of hand and one or both coaches refuse the use of a running clock,” the CIAC wrote.

Regardless, the 50-point policy marks the end of an era in Connecticut football for the time being.

While the policy dramatically prevented teams from winning by more than 50 points — there have been just 15 cases of teams violating the policy and only two suspensions in 10 years — football coaches found themselves resorting to all kinds of in-game shenanigans to keep from breaching 50 points.

Teams took knees, punted on first down, intentionally fell down short of the goal line, took safeties, threw intentional interceptions and intentionally fumbled.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said. “I’d like to see nothing at all because I think that’s an issue that should be left up to the schools. But we’ve been in that situation all the time where you don’t feel like your doing right for kids. You get a JV kid into a game with 5 minutes left and do you want him to play, or do you want him to be taking knees and doing all kinds of other dangerous things just so you can stay under the rule.

“Plus (the rule) ended up forcing the cancelation of a lot of JV games just because two kids played seven plays in a varsity game. I don’t think that was a good thing, either. It wasn’t good for football.”

“It makes a lot more sense,” Notre Dame-Fairfield’s head coach Chris Sadler said of employing a running clock. “To have kids taking knees in the third quarter and letting the team run by them to score kind of defeated the purpose of football and the competitive nature of it.”

The 50-point policy had been watered down over recent years. Instead of an automatic suspension (pending an appeal) for winning over the threshold, the CIAC instead required both coaches and game officials to file reports to a review committee, which would then determine the appropriate action.

One of the last teams to violate the policy was Wolcott after a 62-6 victory over Sacred Heart in 2013. Coach Jason Pace was not suspended. Other coaches who ran afoul of the policy but were not suspended included Northwest Catholic’s Mike Tyler, Barlow’s Rob Tynan, Berlin’s John Capodice, Enfield’s Jay Gaucher and Bridgeport Central’s Dave Cadelina.

The first victim of the policy was East Hartford’s Dan Lawrence in 2006. He was involuntarily suspended after his school declined to appeal what was then an automatic suspension.

The second to sit was NFA’s Jemal Davis, who voluntarily suspended himself after a 51-0 victory over Stamford in 2012.

The policy was almost universally panned, first by coaches and media in Connecticut, then worldwide when it came to the attention of the national press in September 2006, when Cadelina was suspended for defeating crosstown rival Bassick 56-0 in Week 1.